The Weil-Petersson current for moduli of vector bundles and applications to orbifolds

Abstract

We investigate stable holomorphic vector bundles on a compact complex K\"ahler manifold and more generally on an orbifold that is equipped with a K\"ahler structure. We use the existence of Hermite-Einstein connections in this set-up and construct a generalized Weil-Petersson form on the moduli space of stable vector bundles with fixed determinant bundle. We show that the Weil-Petersson form extends as a (semi-)positive closed current for degenerating families that are restrictions of coherent sheaves. Such an extension will be called a Weil-Petersson current. When the orbifold is of Hodge type, there exists a determinant line bundle on the moduli space; this line bundle carries a Quillen metric, whose curvature coincides with the generalized Weil-Petersson form. As an application we show that the determinant line bundle extends to a suitable compactification of the moduli space.